Owen – Star System

Christine Gledhill and Richard Dyer’s Star Theories

Case Study

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

This one’s a strange one because Andy Serkis is the star attraction of this film franchise, despite the fact you never see his face. This article introduces a nice explanation of the fact the film focuses on his character and how that was a surprise. It also discusses how the film could still feature Serkis without his character in it (evidence that he is the main draw).

Legend

Tom Hardy is definitely a star and there were a number of stories that came out around the time of the film’s promotion. One was this story about an interview that questioned his sexuality. Another was the fact that his wife was revealed to be pregnanthis wife was revealed to be pregnant at the premier of the film. Most of the press is about his personal life, but he also has a lot of press about his ability as an actor.

The Avengers

Obviously – there are a lot of actors in the film that would attract audiences, and there was also the director Joss Whedon. The way the press covered the actors is definitely interesting – especially the only female superhero.

A lot of articles sexualised their coverage of Scarlett Johansson (here’s one). There was an interview (admittedly for the second Avengers Film) where she and Mark Ruffalo flip some sexist questions.

In terms of using Twitter and social media to promote the film:

@MarkRuffalo is PROLIFIC on Twitter and probably showed the rest of them how to do it (seriously!). I’ve created a special page for you with the tweets because there are so many it would take you a year to scroll down to them.

@Chrisevans didn’t join Twitter until a month after the film was released, but does use it to promote the sequel Avengers films.

@RobertDowneyJr didn’t join Twitter until 2014, but he uses it AMAZINGLY to promote the sequel Avengers films.

@ChrisHemsworth joined in 2015. He does use it to promote the most recent Avengers films.

@Renner4Real (Jeremy Renner) joined in 2014 and again, uses his Twitter feed to promote the sequel films.